According to the Denver Post's Cannabist blog, Matt Brown of Colorado’s My 420 Tours said Dowd was made aware of what she was getting into. "She got the warning," Brown told the Cannabist. "She did what all the reporters did. She listened. She bought some samples — I don’t remember what exactly. Me and the owner of the dispensary we were at and the assistant manager and the budtender talked with her for 45 minutes at the shop."

Though Brown acknowledged that their lengthy conversation didn't solely consist of "Be careful of edibles" talk, he said Dowd was offered the guidance that a novice would typically be given:

We talked about the difference between shatter and bubble hash. We talked about edibles and how they affect everyone differently. In the context of covering all the bases with a customer, we really went into depth to tell this reporter, who would then tell the world, about marijuana in Colorado.

Brown also revealed that Dowd asked him to roll a joint for her because she didn't know how to do it. That should've been a signal that she was about to get in over her head, or, rather, outside of it, based on her harrowing account of what goes wrong when amateurs try edibles.